Old Dawson Road
The Old Dawson Road in 1907
The McConnell report presents an interesting description of the Whitehorse Copper Belt as it was in 1907. The report includes a large map of the Whitehorse area extending from what is now Porter Creek down to Mary Lake, from the Copper Haul Road to the Yukon River. Even though this map was designed to illustrate the geological underpinnings of the area, it also shows water courses, contours, roads, and mines.
Whitehorse was a much different place in 1907 than it is today. There were no streets north of Strickland. There was no Robert Service Drive or Two Mile Hill. Instead, the road out of Whitehorse led up the clay cliffs at Puckett's Gulch, the site of the current Black Street Stairs. The road north from the head of the gulch ("Road to Copper King Mine") led up to McIntyre Creek and then west along the south bank of the creek to the area of the current entrance to Raven's Ridge on the Alaska Highway. From there, one branch continued on past the Copper King Mine and onto the Pueblo Mine; parts of this road still exist and other parts are under the Fish Lake Road. There was another branch ("Road to Dawson") that led north through Rabbit Foot Canyon roughly along the route of the current Alaska Highway.
The 1907 map shows (at least) one other interesting road in the area. The "Old Dawson Road" cuts through the wooded area between the current Porter Creek subdivision and McIntyre Creek, winding its way around Stinky Lake. This is the area currently known as the Real Thing in Porter Creek. (The Real Thing wasn't actually a real thing until 1910, and even then, it was fairly ephemeral.)
The Old Dawson Road may have been the original route of the Overland Trail constructed in 1902 and replaced sometime shortly afterwards (long enough before 1907 to become the OLD Dawson Road) by the Road to Dawson through Rabbit Foot Canyon. It would have been a winter road so there would have been no extensive preparation of the roadbed if this section was soon abandoned... just a corridor cut through the forest.
The extracts from the 1907 map here show the context of the Old Dawson Road. Note these are rotated 60 degrees clockwise from the original orientation so that north is at the top.
Or, you can see the whole map in its original orientation.
See also Michael Gates' columun History Hunter: There is plenty of history hidden around Whitehorse, published by the Yukon News on August 6, 2021.
Finding the Old Dawson Road
There are traces of the Old Dawson Road visible here and there in the Real Thing area. Tracking down the complete route required comparison of the 1907 McConnell map with current satellite images, LIDAR imagery, and contours... and then confirming it all on the ground. One would expect that these parts of the area would not change significantly in the last 110+ years and would match easily on the old and current maps:
- Versluce Meadows. This was a wet area northeast of the Porter Creek SuperA with Porter Creek (the actual creek) flowing through it. In recent years, the creek has been diverted to flow north along Dogwood Street before turning east to flow into the lake behind Porter Creek Secondary School.
- Rabbit Foot Canyon. The south end of the canyon is fairly well defined by the quickly rising cliffs on each side. The "Road to the War Eagle Mine" on the 1907 map was roughly where the current Whitehorse Landfill access road is now. And the Anaconda Mine portal marked on the map has a known location on the west wall of the canyon.
- Bald Hill. This well-known lookout is a short distance northwest of Stinky Lake. Most visitors do not appreciate that it is not the highest point in the Real Thing area. That distinction goes to Sophie's Summit, which is due west of Stinky Lake. Sophie's Summit, however, is not as steep as Bald Hill, and is currently completely forested so it's not easy to see from a distance and affords no panoramic views. The 1907 map shows Sophie's Summit and Bald Hill as closely spaced twin peaks on the same feature when actually Sophie's Summit should be farther south. The contours on the map make Bald Hill at least 15 m higher than Sophie's Summit when actually the reverse is true.
- Stinky Lake. The lake has high sides (cliffs, steep slopes) on the west, north, and east. Changing water levels could change the shape of the lake as more of the low area around the lake, especially on the south, is covered or uncovered. Indeed, the lake on the 1907 map is ear-shaped with the long axis east-west while today it is more uniformly round.
- Outlet from Stinky Lake. The south end of Stinky Lake is low and marshy. The water eventually collects in a stream that flows south down a gulley. These days, that stream is largely underground in the bottom of that gully. It occasionally breaks through to the surface but disappears completely before it reaches the power line right of way that parallels McIntyre Creek. The 1907 map clearly shows the creek flowing all the way to McIntyre Creek.
- McIntyre Creek. McIntyre Creek has probably not changed it course significantly in the last 110+ years except possibly around the beaver ponds and wetlands.
- McIntyre Creek crossing. The Old Dawson Road probably crossed McIntyre Creek just to the east of the blue pumphouse, southeast of Yukon University. Farther west, the banks are steep. Farther east is a large wetland which, although it has easy access from the south, has no easy exit on the north or west... except up the creek by the blue pumphouse.
This map extract shows these reference features.
The 1907 map was made from a compendium of sources that are explained on the right-hand margin of the map. This was all done without the benefit of aerial/satellite photography, laser rangefinders, computers, and modern geographical information systems. It's pretty good for the tools of the day but things don't exactly line up. And in 1907, plotting the exact path of the Old Dawson Road, which may have no longer been in use, was probably not a high priority for this map. So, finding exactly where the Old Dawson Road actually passed through the Real Thing area is not simply a matter of laying one map over another.
The Old Dawson Road today
There are seven sections to the Old Dawson Road as it passes through Porter Creek. Click on any part of the Road on this interactive map (try "View larger map") to see how that corresponds to a specific section described below. Red indicates sections where the routing is uncertain.
Section 1. From the creek crossing by the pumphouse, the Road probably followed the existing trail that parallels the creek to the west right up to the point where the trail makes a sharp hairpin curve. Right there before the trail goes up a steep hill, a gap in the woods leads off to the north.
Section 2. The trail followed a zig-zag path north. The map shows this following a series of faint gaps in the trees where the vegetation is different (more deciduous trees, no large coniferous trees) than that on each side of a fairly narrow corridor. The route avoids the steepest hills. NOTE: The firesmarting of early 2022 significantly thinned out the forest in the north end of section 2. The route in this area is now even more difficult to discern but easier to walk.
Section 3. In this section, the Road is fairly well defined because it has become a walking/ski trail. The gap in the trees is fairly wide here.
Section 4. The 1907 map shows the Road going up the hill to the west of the Stinky Lake outlet creek. The creek gully is quite steep right up to the lake, but overgrown and the water flows mostly under the surface of the gully. There are no obvious vegetation-related vestiges of the Road on either side of the creek and no obvious gradual slope that would have made a good route.
Section 5. The Road went around the west side of Stinky Lake between the steep slopes/cliff and the water (by the area where the springs feed the lake) to the natural gap at the north end of the lake.
Section 6. The well-used double-track trail that leads from the north end of Stinky Lake past the south side of Bald Hill might seem like a plausible route for the Road. But that has a very steep section in it that would make it difficult to use. Indeed, the 1907 map shows the Road going east (not south) of Bald Hill. The route shown on the interactive map is currently a walking trail that joins a double-track trail that comes out on the corner of 9th Avenue and Fir Street.
Section 7. The 1907 map shows the Road joining the "Road to Dawson" (probably in the current Alaska Highway Corridor) somewhere north of the Porter Creek SuperA, west of Versluce Meadows. The route shown on the interactive map is just a rough approximation not based on any particular evidence on the ground.
Access
See the Real Thing in Porter Creek for general access information for the area.
The south end of the Old Dawson Road described here is by the blue pumphouse southwest of Yukon University. It is near POI 39 in the Real Thing area. A convenient access point in the north is at the corner of 9th and Fir in Porter Creek near POI 15 in the Real Thing area.
Downloads
You can find a GPS map for this project on the download page. It covers the route from McIntyre Creek north around Stinky Lake and on to the corner of 9th and Fir.
If you have this Custom Map on your GPS, you can follow the route of the Old Dawson Road. Note that it's not a clearly defined trail for its whole length. In section 2, the Road is only defined by vague differences in vegetation (gap in coniferous forest filled with younger deciduous trees, now even less obvious after early 2022 firesmarting). In section 4, you are on your own!
TimmiT History Exploration Notebook